The authors of a new book, What Sticks, tracked campaigns from 36 top advertisers over five years and concluded that 37 percent of advertising is wasted.

What Sticks, written by Rex Briggs, a market researcher and founder of Marketing Evolution, and Greg Stuart, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, concludes that it's possible to find out where ad money is being wasted and to get more from the 62.7 percent of the ad budget that performs well, AdAge reports (via MediaBuyerPlanner). The authors studied campaigns from the likes of Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Kraft Foods and McDonald's.

Marketers and their failure to define success for campaigns at the outset takes much of the blame. Of the 36 marketers the authors researched, only P&G and Cingular had a clear definition of success for each marketing effort at the outset.

The book calls for a "commercial optimization process" covering messaging strategy, creative and media planning. But this would require analysis of failure, almost impossible for some to admit for fear they'll be fired.